“While most of the news media is focused on the horse race of presidential politics, corporate lobbying groups like ALEC have been operating in the shadows to erode your rights at the state level. They are making the wish lists of the billionaire class become a reality.” Read more HERE.
View Video HERE.
Related: American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), click here.
EYE-OPENING! ALEC Behind Closed Doors With Georgia Legislators, click here.
WXIA-TV, Atlanta reports “The Georgia Legislature has a message for voters: don’t ask us about our meetings with corporate lobbyists behind closed doors.
The 11Alive Investigators tracked lawmakers to a resort hotel in Savannah last week, where we observed state legislators and lobbyists mingling in the hotel bar the night before they gathered in private rooms to decide what new laws would best serve the corporations.
The meetings were part of the Spring Task Force Summit of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.
What is ALEC?
“It’s really a corporate bill mill,” said Sen. Nan Orrock, an Atlanta Democrat who has served in both houses of the Georgia General Assembly for years. “They’re cranking out legislation, putting it into the hands of legislators who go back and file it.”
Orrock would know. She was once a member of ALEC.
“The corporations that are there have equal standing with the legislators,” Sen. Orrock said.
“You mean they can vote?” we asked.
“They absolutely can vote, and truth be told, they write the bills,” she answered, referring to the lobbyists.
There really are back rooms where corporate lobbyists have direct access to lawmakers completely out of sight, with no transparency or public filings. They’re also wined and dined after hours at these events with nothing recorded on ethics reports.
We know because we saw one of these back rooms with our own eyes, and were kicked out with the aid of off-duty police officers on orders from ALEC staff.”
View report and read more HERE.
Related: American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), click here.
What Is The State Policy Network?
The State Policy Network (SPN) is a web of so-called “think tanks” that push a right-wing agenda in every state across the country. Although many of SPN’s member organizations claim to be nonpartisan and independent, an in-depth investigation by non-profit, non-partisan investigative reporting groups the Center for Media and Democracy and Progress Now reveals that SPN and its affiliates are major drivers of the right-wing, ALEC-backed agenda in state houses nationwide, with deep ties to the Koch brothers and the national right-wing network of funders, all while reporting little or no lobbying activities.
How Does SPN’s Agenda Benefit Its Donors?
Funding to SPN in some ways resembles a client-based relationship. SPN groups promote legal changes that benefit their right-wing funders and partners. SPN think tanks often advocate for lowering corporate taxes, restricting workers’ rights, repealing minimum and living wage laws, and opposing government regulations on businesses – all of which could benefit their right-wing and corporate backers.
How Is SPN Related to ALEC?
SPN and many of its affiliates are members of the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), where corporate lobbyists and special interest group representatives vote as equals with state lawmakers behind closed doors on “model” legislation that in many cases ends up benefiting the corporations’ bottom line. SPN has played a major role in supporting ALEC, serving as a “chairman” level sponsor of the 2013 and 2011 ALEC Annual Conferences and acting as a voting member of several task forces. SPN affiliates push parts of ALEC’s agenda in their respective states, and ALEC is also an associate member of SPN. SPN and its affiliates have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to ALEC.
Read more HERE.
Who is behind the Maine Heritage Policy Center?
The State Policy Network (SPN) is web of right-wing “think tanks” in states across the country. The Maine Heritage Policy Center (MHPC) is SPN’s cookie-cutter think tank for the state of Maine. While MHPC claims to be focused on issues important to the people of Maine, it actually pushes an agenda dictated by its national right-wing funders and partners. Read more HERE.
TO GET THE FULL REPORT, click here.
Related: American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), click here.
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) describes itself as the largest “membership association of state legislators,” but over 98% of its revenue comes from sources other than legislative dues, primarily from corporations and corporate foundations.
After the 2010 congressional midterm elections, ALEC boasted that “among those who won their elections, three of the four former state legislators newly-elected to the U.S. Senate are ALEC Alumni and 27 of the 42 former state legislators newly-elected to the U.S. House are ALEC Alumni.”
ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC’s operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills.
For a list of legislators with current or former ties to ALEC, see ALEC Politicians.
As of January 2014, 77 state legislators have cut ties with ALEC, click here.
Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy’s ALECexposed.org and check out breaking news on PRWatch.org site.
Source: sourcewatch.org
More on ALEC:
ALEC State Chairs, click here.
Maine
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The Unmasking of Maine....and Beyond 